


It Follows

by 4wholecats



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Daemons, Gen, Mentions of Violence, Post-Crystal, but its canon-typical, camping in hell with the boys, mostly - Freeform, prompto tries to befriend him, ravus is a daemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 16:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11740848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4wholecats/pseuds/4wholecats
Summary: “It’s just like taming a chocobo; you just gotta show him a little respect, then you get on just fine.”Except this was absolutely nothing like taming a chocobo, and Ignis was fairly sure he was about to have a heart attack.Aka a still-daemonic Ravus survives his battle with the chocobros, and follows them back to Hammerhead.





	It Follows

There is a noise, out in the darkness somewhere. Unsurprising, really, since the entire facility was crawling with daemons, but Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto all readied themselves for battle. The loss of their leader would not deter them.

 

There was the sound of footsteps; painfully slow, unsteady footsteps. There was a groan, and a familiar figure stepped forward, out of the darkness. 

 

“Ravus?” Gladio breathed. Prompto gasped and Gladio could practically feel Ignis tense up beside him. 

 

The former high commander, who they had utterly eviscerated just hours beforehand, stood before before them, unsteady on his feet. Solid darkness still poured from his body, encasing his arm and forming a sharp horn on his head. His black, dribbling eyes did not blink as he stared at the men in front of him. 

 

Next to him, Gladio heard the clicks of a gun being loaded, but other than that, nobody moved a muscle. Ravus made no attempt to attack them, nor did he speak. 

 

“What is he doing?” Ignis whispered.

 

“He’s just kind of... standing there,” Gladio answered, eyes trained on the man in question. Ravus continued to sway back and forth, his collapsed body making him unsteady. He was not holding a weapon, but that didn’t mean much to Gladio, who was ready to spring into action at any second; at the first sign of movement. 

 

“We have to get out of here,” Prompto’s voice was uncharacteristically weary. “We don’t have enough supplies for another battle. We hardly have enough potions to make it back to a safe haven!”

 

Gladio couldn’t argue with that. Their pack of medical supplies was concerningly light, and Prompto had used their last phoenix down during their  _ last _ encounter with Ravus. 

 

Putting a guiding hand on Ignis’s shoulder, they all began slowly backing away, toward the door at the other end of the large room. They had almost made it when Ravus, who had been silently watching them scoot away, let out a guttural wheezing groan, causing them all to jump. Then, he began shuffling forward, until he stopped only a few yards away. 

 

“He’s following us,” It was a questions Ignis clearly already knew the answer to.

 

“What are we supposed to do now? We can’t go back to a city if he’s gonna follow us there!” Prompto whined, one hand still on his gun.

 

Ravus let out another gasping, empty sound. 

“What does he want?” Prompto said, turning towards the daemon man. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

 

Ravus said… something? It was an indistinguishable jumble of sounds, completely unrecognizable to any of them. He took another step forward, and the boys took another step back. 

 

“I... AM...” He rasped, eyes wide as more black goo dribbled out of his mouth and down his face. 

 

“Well that didn’t answer my question,” Prompto almost sounded like he was trying to make a joke in the face of this unfortunate situation. Ravus rasped again, but did not attempt to speak. 

 

“Well, if he’s not attempting to harm us we should make haste for the nearest safe haven. Or at least, we should get out of this building,” Ignis said. “Then, once we are safe, we can figure out what to do with… him.”

 

Gladio did not like this plan. He very much did not like this plan. This plan meant that they would be walking into a populated area with a daemon in toe. Iris would be there, and Gladio wanted Iris safe.

 

The small group made their way back out of the facility slowly. They were all exhausted, not to mention that the building itself was a labyrinth. All the while, Ravus trailed after them, always keeping about fifty feet of space between himself and the others. Once they felt the cool night air on their faces again, the three remaining boys regrouped. Supplies were counted, plans were made, and the elephant in the room, or rather, the daemon in the room, was discussed. 

 

“We could just kill him, you know, again,” Prompto suggested.

 

“Evidence shows that doesn’t work, Prompto. We already tried getting rid of him,” Ignis dismissed the idea.  

 

“Well then what should we do?”

 

“That’s what we are  _ trying _ to figure out,”

 

Gladio cleared his voice in an effort to halt this argument in it’s tracks. The two other men turned towards him, and he brought a hand to the back of his neck uncomfortably. 

 

“Daemon’s don’t do great in sunlight, right? What time is it?” 

 

“About four o’clock in the morning” Prompto said, quickly pulling his cracked phone out of his pocket.

 

“Well then the sun should be up in just a few hours. Let’s just wait ‘till he melts,” Gladio said, taking a seat on a chunk of nearby rubble.

 

They waited.

 

They waited.

 

They waited.

 

The sun never came.

 

“What’s going on? It’s seven already! Rise and shine, you know?” Prompto exclaimed from his spot on the ground. 

 

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to just wait around like this for much longer. We don’t have any food or water left,” Ignis said, correct as usual. 

 

Ravus, who continued to stumble around a few yards to the left of their little stakeout spot, turned towards them, as if understanding that they were leaving. The group continued on into the night, towards Hammerhead.

 

It took them several days to get there, and in that time, they learned a few things about this “new and unimproved” Ravus. The first thing was that he could not set foot on haven campgrounds. Ignis seemed to think it was the ruins that kept him away. Gladio was fine with this arrangement, but one night Prompto told the others that he did feel a little bad seeing Ravus sitting alone in the dirt.

 

The second thing they learned was that even though he had been practically torn apart just a few days before, Ravus could fight just fine. They woke one “morning” to the sounds of demonic screaming and animals stomping, and when they went to investigate, Ravus stood before the carcass of some great and terrible beast, molten dark sword in hand and blood on the remains of his uniform. 

 

The third thing they learned was that Ravus was absolutely still himself, if a mutilated, carved up version. Prompto had gotten close to him one day, closer than any of them had dared to before, and underneath his mask of black, pulsing, daemonic energy there were traces of that familiar scowl still there. He spoke sometimes too, usually almost always complete and utter nonsense, but one night Ignis could have sworn he heard someone calling Luna’s name. Sometimes he was fairly lucid, haltingly saying name of people they knew (including directly calling to Gladio on at least one occasion), but on other times he stumbled on silently with empty eyes.

 

Finally, they were only one night’s rest away from the safety of Hammerhead. They had restocked along the trip, but their supplies were dwindling yet again and all of them agreed that it would be nice to sleep in a bed again. 

 

“I think now is a good time to come up with a real plan regarding our friend here,” Ignis said as Gladio and Prompto consumed their nightly rations. Ravus was, as usual, sitting silently in the grass a few hundred yards away from their campsite. He was staring up at the moon, not moving a muscle. 

 

“I think… we should take him with us.” Prompto said, stuffing the last piece of his meager sandwich in his mouth. Ignis’s eyebrows raised over the rim of his glasses and Gladio opened his mouth to protest.

 

“No hear me out! It’s not like we can get rid of him or kill him or anything, right? So maybe if we go to Hammerhead we can… get him some help or something. Or maybe the lights will just fry him. Either way it’s a win-win!”

 

“It’s not a win-win if he goes crazy and kills someone,” Gladio said.

 

“If he wanted to kill someone he could have killed us loads of times!, He even protected us from that animal that night! C’mon guys, it’s not like we have a lot of options!”

 

“Prompto may be right, we don’t really have a way of getting him to leave us alone,” Ignis said. Gladio stood abruptly, sword in hand, a determined look on his face.

 

“I’ll get him to leave,” He said, marching toward the field, dangerously close to the edge of the runes. Ignis and Prompto both immediately grabbed his arms in an attempt to stop him.

 

“Wait Gladio! We don’t have the supplies for another battle right now!” Ignis warned, unsteady as Gladio continued to push forward. 

 

“I don’t care. I’m not bringing a daemon into a safe haven. Iris is there, and so is everybody else, Prompto! It’s our responsibility to keep them safe!”

 

“But he hasn’t hurt anyone!”

 

“I don’t want to take any chances! Get off of me!”

 

“No, you mustn't do anything rash,” Ignis said, hand firmly wrapped around Gladio’s wrist. 

 

Ravus had apparently heard the commotion and stood up, facing them and looking at them with his blank, black eyes. 

 

“Here, look. I’ll show you! He’s not gonna hurt us!” Prompto unhooked himself from Gladio’s side and approached the daemon man slowly, arms raised.

 

“Prompto!” both of his friends called out, previous squabble forgotten.

 

“Stay back guys! I’m proving a point here!” Prompto responded, tilting his head back to his friends but not taking his eyes off the target. “It’s just like taming a chocobo; you just gotta show him a little respect, then you get on just fine.”

 

Except this was absolutely nothing like taming a chocobo, and Ignis was fairly sure he was about to have a heart attack. 

 

Prompto stopped about an arm's length away from Ravus, close enough that the daemon could probably slash him in half with his claws if he wanted to.

 

“Uh, hey Ravus. Well, we were just talking, and… We are going to Hammerhead tomorrow. Have you ever been there? Probably not, but it’s cool! A nice girl named Cindy works there and… well if you want you can come with us, but only if you promise to behave. No eating the civilians or whatever, okay?” Prompto held his eye contact with Ravus, hands still held up in a gesture of surrender. No one moved for a few moments, but then, very subtly, Ravus nodded. It was less of a nod and more of a general slumping, but Prompto released his bated breath and visibly relaxed before slowly backing off to rejoin his comrades.

 

“I told you he’s fine! Kinda like a seven-foot-tall human shaped dog made of death goo,” Prompto flashed on of his famous smiles before climbing back up the rocks to the rune covered plateau. 

 

Gladio couldn’t help but snort, even if his heart was still pounding in his chest. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhhh I can't really even explain this at all.
> 
> This is my first non-Fire Emblem related fic! I might add more to this, but I'd need ideas from others in order to inspire me ;)!! Oh yeah and this isn't beta read bc I don't like showing my GARBAGE to people before its fully cooked.
> 
> I like Ravus, he probably deserved better than he got in canon. Probably.


End file.
